By Antonis Polydorou
The absolute continuation of Nicos Anastasiades. That, in the end, is what unites Nicos Anastasiades and Nikos Christodoulides. Absolute cynicism in the exercise of power. Everything that tested the limits of impunity in this country, and the Republic itself, under the Anastasiades government continues under Nikos Christodoulides.
One of the most significant "charges" Nikos Christodoulides had to face upon his election was that he represented a continuation of the Anastasiades government. He was, after all, his chosen successor from the very first day Anastasiades decided he would not seek re-election and let the term limit stand. Like his predecessor, he was considered to hold a loose conception of ethics, to be unprepared to touch the rot, to be comfortable with the existing failed state. In general, to be a man of the system.
He soon confirmed almost all the burdens his candidacy had carried before the election, with his very first political act showing that he would use the state machinery as his fiefdom. Even then, however, few charged Nikos Christodoulides with a disposition to continue at the same levels of corruption that stigmatised the previous decade. Until the leak of videogate, which came to cast shadows over his self-proclaimed moral superiority.
This week, Nikos Christodoulides also recalled the extreme cynicism of Nicos Anastasiades. The haste with which the latter appointed to key positions people he believed he could control and who, if necessary, would protect him.
